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NEW DELHI / WAM
The UAE has participated in the 16th International Energy Forum (IEF), ministerial meeting, which was inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Representing the UAE at the three-day meeting was Suhail bin Mohammed Faraj Faris Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy and Industry, who spoke at a distinguished panel on energy. Al Mazrouei is also President of the OPEC Conference for the current year.
The UAE is a member of the Riyadh-based Forum’s Executive Board, which is currently chaired by India. The New Delhi meeting, co-hosted by India, China and South Korea, focused on “How global shifts, transition policies and new technologies influence market stability and future investment in the energy sector,” according to an announcement by the Indian government’s Press Information Bureau.
Energy ministers from 42 countries attended the biennial IEF Ministerial Meeting, reported India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the organiser of the event.
The ministry said that apart from 72 IEF member countries, 20 others with whom India has oil and gas engagements were invited to
attend. The theme of the three-day meeting was “Future of Global Energy Security.” The IEF’s membership accounts for 90 percent of global supply and demand for oil and gas.
In the run up to the New Delhi ministerial meeting, the International Energy Agency (IEA), released a report which predicted that India and China will account for nearly half of the increase in global oil demands in the next five years.
Among the officials from major energy-supplying countries, in addition to the UAE Minister, the 16th biennial IEF meeting was attended by Khalid Al Falih, Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia, Bijan Namdar Zangeneh, Minister of Petroleum of Iran, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources of Nigeria, Pavel Sorokin, Deputy Minister of Energy of Russia, and Mark Wesley Menezes, the US Under-Secretary of Energy.
In addition to the Secretary-General of OPEC, Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, representatives of Kuwait, Egypt, Algeria and Libya were also in New Delhi for the meeting.
The UAE representatives actively participated in a curtain-raising event for the 16th IEF ministerial meeting that was hosted by Sunjay Sudhir, Joint Secretary for International Cooperation in the Indian Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
In a statement, Dharmendra Pradhan, India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, thanked the UAE and other countries for “shedding light on their country’s growing role in global energy work.”